Pretty Girl
by clumslebugger
Summary: What if the ambulance ride to the evacuation centre hadn't ended with a smile and a tazed raptor? AU where the raptors are feathered and can mimic human sounds, inspired by (art and idea not mine) Obviously, set in Jurassic World.
1. Chapter 1

The world exploded with the sound of twisting metal and screeching tires.

When he came back to himself, Zach was lying on the road, laid on his back with his knees by his head and all of his weight pressing down dangerously on his neck. Gray was lying on his side a few feet in front of him. Past the prone body of his little brother was the ambulance, now on its side, the front wheel still spinning.

He groaned and peeled himself from the road. His heart fluttered in his chest, and his arms shook as he pushed himself up into a kneeling position.

" _Gray?_ " he hissed. When he got no answer, he thumped the road, as if the dull sound would be any better at rousing his brother. " _Gray!_ "

His head was swimming. The sight of the ambulance on its side inspired a faded panic, but he couldn't make out any thoughts behind the fog that had settled on his mind.

 _Oh shit,_ he thought suddenly, forcing himself to his feet. _Aunt Claire!_

He sprinted towards the ambulance, only making it halfway before he skidded to a halt.

Something was moving.

His first thought was that it was some kind of snake, hanging out of the drivers side window and thrashing victoriously in the night air. Then his memory returned.

It wasn't a snake- it was a tail. A _raptor_ tail. That meant that the rest of it was-

 _Oh God..._

He didn't realise he'd been backing up until he tripped. Beneath him, Gray grunted. Zach righted himself and checked the ambulance; the tail had begun to wriggle, sending shards of glass flying as the animal it was attached to struggled to back out of the narrow window.

"Gray, get up!' he muttered. Gray stirred, but didn't wake. "Gray! _Please!_ " He got no response.

Blood pounded in his ears. He didn't have time for this. Throwing a final glance back over his shoulder at the ambulance, Zach bent down and hefted Gray into his arms, holding him carefully against his chest and cradling his head with one hand, just in case, then retreated into the forest as fast as his brother's dead weight would allow.

The staccato beat of gunfire echoed through the trees, getting louder the further in he went. He slowly became numb to them as he continued on, stumbling through the foliage and clinging to his little brother for dear life.

A gentle voice snapped him out of his trance, and he hugged Gray tight as he stopped to listen.

In the distance, somebody screamed. The noise sent ice through his veins.

"Fire!" the voice was saying. Zach furrowed his brow- something about the voice sounded off, but he couldn't place it. "Light it uh- _uuup!_ "

A twig snapped somewhere ahead of him, and he leapt back as though struck.

"Don't- don't give me that shi- _hiiit!_ " Something about the way the voice spoke was almost familiar. Despite knowing he should probably run and hide, he remained where he was, listening intently in the hopes of satisfying the sudden burning curiosity that had taken over him. " _Aaaaaand_ we're movin'!"

Suddenly, he realised what it was; his girlfriend back home had a parrot, and when it mimicked her voice, it often failed to match her tone. This was the same thing, except it sounded bigger, somehow, seeming to resonating deep within the chest.

A flash of movement split the brush before him, and finally he moved, taking off into a denser part of the brush.

"Oh she's _pretty_ isn't she _pretty!_ " The voice warped as its owner moved. It was too dark to see. _Is it coming closer or moving away?_

"Zach?" The closeness of Gray's voice startled him so badly that Zach nearly dropped him.

" _Shh!_ "

"My head hurts," Gray muttered.

" _Shut up!_ It'll hear you!"

"What'll hear me?" But Zach wasn't listening. He could still hear the rustling, but whether it was drawing near or not, he couldn't say. "Zach? What will hear me?"

" _Hear me?!_ "

Suddenly it seemed as though the jungle burst into life. As the brush around them erupted into madness, Zach dropped Gray and ran, pulling him along by the wrist and ignoring his startled protests. Gray, to his credit, hit the ground running.

"Velociraptor! I saw it!" Gray cried, stumbling as he attempted to look back again.

"Just keep running!"

Behind them, the raptor pack began a mad chorus of warped phrases and half-words.

"We can't outrun it!" Gray called. "A hungry velociraptor can reach speeds of up to fifty miles per hour!"

Zach growled. _Of course they can._ "Well what do you suggest?" He turned a sharp corner, darting between two thick tree trunks, and heard claws on wood a second later as the raptor tried to follow him. He didn't stop. He was running on auto-pilot now, the only thought he could bring to mind was one of survival.

A frustrated roar followed him as he vaulted a fallen tree, the bark burned and smouldering still.

He lost his footing as he landed on the other side, and Gray followed him down.

Many of the shrubs nearby were either burning or burnt, and the ground was covered in ash that flared up into giant plumes as they landed in the dirt. Zach could feel it tickling the back of his throat, but he didn't dare cough.

As he moved to get up, Gray held onto him. He turned, glaring into the most terrified expression he'd ever seen in his life.

"No, stay down," Gray whispered, pointing to something behind him.

He looked, and bit back a scream- there were bodies strewn all around them, some whole, some not. The nearest one was only a few inches from Zach's face, blood oozing from a gigantic bite mark in the abdomen and turning the ash below it into a swampy brown mess.

Bushes rustled from the direction they'd come from, and both boys stiffened.

"Play dead," Zach mouthed, and Gray nodded, tears in his eyes, then put his head down and shut his eyes.

Zach watched him struggle to keep himself calm, trembling forcefully and whimpering quietly into the sleeve of his jacket. The rustling was slowly getting closer- either the raptors thought they'd fallen too far behind, or they knew they wouldn't have to run anymore. Zach prayed it was the former.

Keeping himself low to the ground, he shuffled towards Gray and pulled him into a hug. Gray flinched violently, then relaxed into the contact and slowly, the shaking stopped.

They waited like that for what seemed like an eternity. He fought to control his breathing, kept his mind on the movement of air, and listened.

A heavy foot landed nearby. Gray flinched, Zach didn't. The footstep was quickly followed by half a dozen more as the raptor made her way into the burnt clearing.

She sneezed, and the noise would have been comical if not for its proximity.

" _Pre_ -tty girl," she chirped. "Isn't she- _pretty_ isn't she- atta _girl_ Blue-!" Zach heard her sniff at one of the bodies, and her rhythmless rambling cut off in a fit of hacking and sneezing.

Zach dared to open his eyes. The raptor was standing less than two feet away from them, illuminated only by the still burning brush nearby. She was facing away from them, head turning rapidly as she squinted around the clearing and snorted to clear the last of the dust from her nose.

"Pretty- she's _pretty_ \- she's _pre_ -tty and she's- oh look isn't she-!"

Her tail swung as she turned herself around, the cluster of feathers that adorned the end of it grazing Zach's hair and brushing some of the ash from his head. The raptor sneezed again.

She leaned down to sniff Gray's hair, and for a second, Zach's blood ran cold. Then she recoiled, grunting and hacking.

She was getting frustrated. After another failed attempt at getting a good whiff of air, she stepped over them and continued on, ducking under a flaming tree branch and disappearing out of the clearing.

Once all that was left of her was the faded echo of 'pretty, pretty, pretty', Zach dared to lift his head.

"Come on," he whispered, getting up. "We've gotta move." As if to emphasise his point, a branch from a nearby tree split from its trunk with an almighty crack and crashed to the ground just inches away from them. "Gray! What's wrong with you?"

He knelt down and nudged Gray's shoulder, and only then did he notice his brother sniffling.

"Where's aunt Claire?" he asked. He rolled over to look Zach in the eyes, and half of his face was hidden by ash. Zach didn't answer.

"Come here." He lifted Gray to his feet and drew him in close, brushing the ash out of his hair as he did so. "We're okay." He hugged tighter, finding comfort in the contact as he fisted his fingers in Gray's jacket. "We've gotta try to find the road."

"Okay." Gray broke the hug and wiped his nose with the back of his sleeve. The tears in his eyes and on his cheeks were glowing red with the fire's light, an eerie effect that unnerved Zach more than he cared to admit. "And then we can go home, right?"

"Yeah! First boat out of here, and we'll be home by morning. Mom and Dad'll pick us up, and everything will go back to normal."

The faint hope that had risen on Gray's face blinked out at the mention of their parents, and it took Zach a moment to understand why.

"Hey," he said, putting his hand on Gray's shoulder. "Everything's gonna be okay. No matter what. I'll make sure of that."

The promise sounded weak even to his own ears, but it seemed to work. Gray's smile came back, and Zach offered his own in return.

The crackling of the fire was getting louder, the glow spreading further into the brush as the fire slowly grew out of control. The air smelled strongly of smoke and burning meat, a grim reminder that they were standing in what was essentially a graveyard. The sooner they got out of here, the better.

"Come on," he whispered. His eyes found the source of the smell- a female soldier whose back was in flames, her uniform melting to her flesh and sending plumes of reeking smoke into the clearing.

He took Gray's hand and led him away from the bodies. Somewhere deep in the jungle, something roared, it's cry long and loud and terrifying. The sound nearly froze him, but he forced himself to ignore it. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Gray looking up at him uncertainly. He gave his best reassuring smile.

"Probably nothing," he said, sounding braver than he felt. Gray nodded.

"Okay."


	2. Chapter 2

Owen cocked his head at the scene before him and tightened his grip on his gun. Heavy footsteps heralded the Indominus' arrival, as did the nervous chattering of the raptors. Their tails swished anxiously, the feathers on their spine high and shaking- a threat display. He saw Delta take a step back.

The laser sight on his rifle began to feel far too conspicuous, shining out like a beacon pointing towards him rather than away from him. He swallowed thickly and adjusted his position.

A colossal head split the trees less than twenty feet away from the team, its bright red eyes regarding the fleet of raptors with predatory curiosity.

Slowly, the rest of her emerged. Unlike the raptors, the Indominus' body remained mostly featherless, and the few clusters of sickly white feathers she did possess were now matted and slick with blood.

A few of the men around him aimed their weapons at her head, the red beams tracing erratic patterns across her skin. _She's gotta know we're here. What's she doing?_

She grumbled, and the noise vibrated in his chest. The laser sight of his gun joined the rest of them at the point between the Indominus' eyes. Blue chirped.

"Something's wrong." Owen cast a glance sideways. Beside him, Barry fidgeted, an expression of confused worry on his face. "They're communicating."

It sounded crazy at first. The Indominus had killed all of the other dinosaurs she had come across, why would his raptors be any different?

His eyes widened as a terrifying thought came to his mind. _No, there's no way_.

The raptors' feathers slowly began to settle, tails lazily drifting from side to side as opposed to the nervous sweeping they had been doing only moments ago. _They're relaxing. Oh God-_

"I know why they wouldn't tell us what it's made of," he whispered. He didn't want to say it- didn't even want to _think_ it.

"Why?"

The indominus swept her fiery crimson gaze over the team of soldiers. She snorted.

"That thing's part raptor."

In unison, his raptor pack- the raptors he had raised from birth, had named and hand-fed and loved for years now- turned their heads towards the group. Delta hissed, and the feathers on her shoulders rose.

The sudden onslaught of gunfire made his ears ring. Someone behind him fired a rocket, the bright flash of fire silhouetting the indominus as she tumbled to the ground.

The raptors were nowhere to be seen.

"Watch your six," he called, sweeping his gun around him. "Raptors got a new alpha!"

Suddenly, it seemed as if the entire forest had died. Aside from the crackling of fire, there wasn't a sound to be heard. They moved slowly, an entire group of people becoming one under the threat of violence, moving as a unit Owen would have been proud of back in the navy.

The first scream came from his right.

Immediately, the silence vanished, replaced by chaotic gunfire and screaming. The smell of blood hung heavy in the air already. He swept his gun left and right, catching the occasional glimpse of movement but never finding something to aim at. The raptors might as well have been phantoms, floating invisibly past him, evolved- and to some extent _built_ \- to hunt quickly and silently and not be seen.

He was so fucked.

He suddenly realised that the screams had begun to sound distant- he'd been backing up without realising it. Now he was alone, holding his gun in shaky hands and breathing heavily.

As he stood there, pointing his gun at the brush around him and trying to stay calm, the silence slowly returned to the jungle.

When the screaming faded completely, Owen noticed a new sound- a much more ominous one.

 _Something_ nearby was eating something else, squelching and crunching its way through bone and muscle. Owen had, in his time at jurassic world, seen many things that would make many other men sick, but he'd built up an immunity. The sound of what was almost certainly a person being eaten, especially so close, made his stomach turn.

 _God help me..._

He'd just started in the direction of his bike when the hiss of shaking grass behind him froze the blood in his veins. Something soft brushed his leg, just hard enough to be felt through his jeans. He jumped forwards, head swinging wildly as he watched for movement.

When he turned back around, he was met with Delta's unyielding amber stare.

"Fuck," he muttered. She cocked her head at him.

"Fu-uck!" she repeated. Despite himself, he felt a surge of pride; Delta had always been the quiet one.

He raised his gun, pretending he didn't notice that his hands were shaking. Delta turned her head the other way.

The grass rustled behind him, and he fought to keep his eyes on Delta.

"Char- _lie_!" Charlie's voice, which was always higher pitched than her sisters' voices, came from behind him, uncomfortably close to his left ear.

He remembered what he'd said in the briefing barely an hour ago. He'd given the troop specific instructions _not_ to shoot his raptors, and now it looked like he was going to have to do just that.

He closed his eyes, eyebrows furrowing. He didn't think he could do it.

He felt Charlie's hot breath on the back of his neck, and gooseflesh rose on his skin. This close, he could hear the slight rumble in her throat as she purred. Maybe she was feeling as conflicted as him?

Before he got his answer, a scream split the air, and Charlie's snout bumped his head as she turned to listen. It came again, and after a second of hesitation, both raptors ran off towards it, Charlie imitating the scream in irregular bursts. He listened to their stomping footsteps retreat into the distance before moving.

He dashed for his bike, painfully aware how loud he was as he crashed through the long grass.

The air was full of smoke, and he pulled his shirt up over his mouth and nose to keep it out of his lungs. Still, he coughed loudly as he started the bike's engine. More than anything, he wanted to turn back towards the road and ride as fast as the bike could carry him, not stopping until he was in the evacuation centre with everyone else, but instead he turned deeper into the jungle and accelerated hard.

The scream that had saved his life had undoubtedly come from Barry.

The bike jolted and jumped on the uneven ground, and he very nearly lost his balance more than once. He couldn't hear much else over the growling of his engine, no matter how hard he tried to focus on anything else. He felt like his concentration was being stretched thin by the task of avoiding the oncoming trees and branches, and the constant noise was a distraction he really didn't need.

And it was because of the constant noise that he didn't hear the approaching raptor until she ploughed into him.

He yelped as the force of her attack knocked him from the bike and sent him flying, tumbling over himself for such a distance that by the time he stopped- landing heavily on his back, the wind knocked out of him and his head spinning madly- he could no longer even _hear_ his bike.

His ears were ringing as he gingerly rolled himself over onto his stomach. His head felt a thousand times heavier, lolling about on his shoulders in every direction except the one he wanted it to. He could hear heavy breathing- was it him? It must have been; every breath he took seemed to take a great deal of his strength, and his chest heaved.

He could hear something. Through the ringing in his ears and the fog in his mind, a quiet, barely audible noise made itself known. It was muffled and distant, and he crawled towards it, elbows scraped and raw in no time at all.

All at once, the cotton in his ears disappeared, and he could finally hear the sound clearly.

" _Owen_?"

 _It's Barry!_ With new hope, he crawled faster, arms shaky and legs numb. In the back of his mind, he wondered if the fall had done any serious damage.

"Owen!"

"I'm- I'm comin'," His fingertips felt rubbed raw, and there was dirt lodged under his fingertips. He clawed great handfuls of dirt up as he hauled himself forwards, legs scraping uselessly behind him.

" _OWEN!_ "

He flinched violently. Barry's scream tore through the jungle, so full of pain and fear and so damn _close_. If he could just move a little bit faster...

"Ow-en?" Closer still. His arms were cramping. Sweat poured down his face. His head was starting to feel too light, and every time he moved his eyes, the world went blurry.

"Barry?"

His vision was going dark. Dimly, he realised that the sweat from his face was only a small fraction of what was staining the dirt below him. The realisation made his head swim even more.

The brush nearby shook madly. He could hear his motorbike rumbling.

" _Barry_?" he hissed desperately. The response was immediate.

"Ba- _rrrr_ -y?"

He froze. Holding his head up was suddenly far too hard, and he let it fall to the ground with a surprisingly wet noise. The metallic smell of blood filled his nose and made him choke.

He could hear thumping all around him, but whether it was his own frantic heartbeat or footsteps, he couldn't be sure. He found he couldn't bring himself to care.

Something nudged his head, and warm breath ruffled his hair. His head lolled to the right and he left it there, mouth parted as he tried to suck every weak, desperate breath he could into his chest.

The colours of the fire-torn jungle seemed to smudge and run into each other like a ruined painting. His head was starting to feel heavy again.

Hot, reeking breath fluttered across his sweaty face, and he groaned. The smudgy colours in his vision went grey, then slowly, black.

What was left of his blood roared in his ears, and soon even that started to go quiet.

"Ow-en?"

And the world went silent.


End file.
